Every case of nation formation has its own particularities. And to determine when and how nations like the Ukrainian or Macedonian were formed, or other nations whose existence and activity we recognize today beyond any doubt, requires a specific historical analysis tailored to each case.

In all cases, the nation is, by definition, political, meaning that from the very moment of its existence, it is situated within a (quasi) state territory. In this sense, the nation is the people of a state. Sometimes it involves the transformation and homogenization of subjects (the people of the monarch or the people of an aristocratic political organization) into citizens; at other times, it refers to the people of a state within a state that transforms into a nation and demands freedom (state) and rights, as in the case of Greece.

How is a nation constituted? What is its relationship with the state and the emergence of capitalism? How does nationalism influence the formation of nations and the integration of the masses into the state? How is the nation connected to imperialism and resistance against it?

Yiannis Milios returns to one of the major stakes of Marxist theory to argue that the nation constitutes a recent historical phenomenon that manifests within capitalist social formations as a product of nationalism, that is, the “national politicization” of the masses, and contains both a “tendency towards freedom” and a “tendency towards totalitarianism.” By mobilizing the central categories of Marx’s critique of political economy, the author comprehensively examines the relationship between capital and imperialism and highlights the class struggle within the framework of the nation-state as the ultimate “risk” factor for capital. He thus offers us a valuable theoretical framework for understanding the international and class conflicts that are at the center of shaping the modern world.